Let’s face it, today we live in a world where every second counts and efficiency is king. “That’s good, but how can I do that FASTER?” is often times the mindset we have with our busy lives. Rather than unlocking the secret of the right combo of moves, I decided I’d give you my “rules of thumb” in regards to burning the most calories while getting the best workout. Are you ready?
Add some balance
One of my favorite things to do is take “basic” exercises and make the ENTIRE body have to work!
- Standing dumbbell curls. Do them standing on a BOSU.
- Dumbbell skull crushers. Do them lying on a stability ball.
- Stationary lunges. Do them with one leg on an air disc.
- Push-ups. A BOSU or TRX works fantastically.
What matters here is you take away as much stability as possible, thus making your body take a “normal” exercise and expand twice the energy! Your body will internally be using smaller stabilizing muscles as well as a combination of flex and tension that it wouldn’t do when in a stable position. I liken it to taking a 4 cylinder engine minivan and converting it to a V8 as far as energy (calorie) consumption goes!
Create your own circuit work
I advise you to follow the first bit of advice with this one since they work beautifully together! ESPECIALLY if you’re not used to this style of working out!
Rather than doing a set of squats, resting, then doing another set of squats and then moving on to the next set of exercises (for example’s sake we’ll say “stiff legged dead lifts”), do them back to back! Go from squats IMMEDIATELY to stiff legged dead lifts and THEN take a break!
Already do that?
Add a third exercise to the mix! a 4th! a 5th! Whatever you AREN’T used to doing, do that! When you start doing back to back to back exercises, you will need to drop weight a bit, but don’t worry, you’ll get back to strength! Taking your body out of its comfort zone is the best thing you can do in regards to making sure it is running at maximum potential.
Make sure you’re properly fueled
This is a big one… All too often I run into the “minimalist mentality.” That’s when people have the bug in their brain that says “food did this to you, so the less food the BETTER THE RESULTS!”
If your tank doesn’t have any gas in it, then you’re not going to drive anywhere! Your body is the same way! If you don’t have the ENERGY to carry you through a body-blasting workout, then you’re just going through the motions (and that really doesn’t help you in the long term).
I like to have 8-16 oz of fruit juice about a half hour before my workout. I always make sure I’ve eaten FAIRLY recently before I exercise (even if something simple like fruit and almonds) just so I’m certain that “I got this.”
Most of the time, the GREAT workouts were the ones where you were properly fueled and had the ability to nail it. In order to get the most out of your workout and keep up the high intensity… make sure you’ve got gas in the tank!
Lastly, remember this…
You’ve got to want it more than anything because anything can stop you.
- Josh Cox